They did just that in a 3-0 shutout win over the Braves, led by seven shutout innings from Nick Pivetta. He allowed only four hits and a walk with seven strikeouts on 107 pitches. Over his last three starts, he’s allowed just one run on 10 hits and two walks, while striking out 25 for an ERA of 0.43. That’s really good.

The Phils got on the board with a shallow solo homer from Nick Williams in the bottom of the 4th. Nothing else happened until Aaron Altherr pinch-hit for Pivetta in the seventh and crushed a two-run bomb to left.

Odubel Herrera got on base again, extending his “games he’s made it at least to first base no matter what MLB says” to 47.

The Phils are a half-game behind Atlanta for tops in the NL East. They can be the ones with a half-game lead in the division at the end of the night if they beat the Braves at 7:05 PM on NBC Sports Philadelphia. The singing Vince Velasquez will take the mound, looking for another great start.

Howie Roseman knew he needed to alter the culture a little bit to create competition. He did just that:

We understand that it’s hard to repeat,” Roseman said at the owners’ meetings in March. “You have to add some guys with the same chip on their shoulders that we brought in last year.”

Now, adding guys with chips on their shoulders coincided nicely with the Eagles’ salary cap situation. The good thing about players with something to prove is that they’re cheap. And the Eagles needed that.

All of their free agents this offseason signed either one- or two-year deals and it’s similar to the contracts the Eagles handed out last offseason when they brought in Alshon Jeffery, LeGarrette Blount, Chris Long and Patrick Robinson. All those guys were hits and it helped with the championship. But these signings aren’t always hits; there are going to be misses too.

When talking about moves, Roseman likened it to gambling, which is really what it is. The analytics play a role in making sure the odds are in their favor, but there are plenty of variables like injuries that still make every move a gamble. It’s all about maximizing the odds.

In other sports news, Cleveland tied their Eastern Conference Final series with the Celtics after a 111-102 win. It was also the first game since Boston defeated the Sixers in Game 5 that a game was decided by less than 10 points.

The Capitals have forced a Game 7 in Tampa Bay after a 3-0 shutout over the Lightning. That will be Wednesday. The winner faces the Vegas Golden Knights.

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Chris is a senior at Syracuse University studying Broadcast & Digital Journalism and the video coordinator for the men's lacrosse team. He has covered the Philadelphia Eagles for Philadelphia Magazine’s Birds 24/7 and for KYW Newsradio 1060 the last couple of years. He’s also a Managing Editor for College Crosse, a college lacrosse website.